Mitchell Beazley Pocket Guide: Wines of California

Stephen Brook has been a freelance writer for many years specializing in wine and travel books. He won the André Simon Award in 1987 for Liquid Gold: Dessert Wines of the World, and has written several other excellent travel and wine books, including The Complete Bordeaux, Bordeaux: People, Power and Politics and Pauillac: The Wines and Estates of a Renowned Bordeaux Commune. Brook has been learning about and drinking California wines since the late 1970s: "California wine regions routinely succeed in offering rich, full-bodied, fleshy, opulent wines that make an immediate sensory appeal." Brook briefly summarizes the history of wine in California, relying mainly on the works of Charles Sullivan, especially A Companion to California Wine. He presents a short, but excellent, summary of the "rules of California wine", asserting that California as an independent country would be the world's fourth largest producer after Italy, France and Spain. (A telling comment: "By and large, California wineries are not keen to dupe the consumer, although the overall laxity of the regulations often makes it easy for an element of deception to creep in.") Brook devotes about a quarter of the book to the wine regions, a quarter to grapes and types of wines, and the balance to a "Gazetteer" of various producers throughout the state. Throughout he relies on personal relationships with hundreds of grape growers, wine makers, writers and wine lovers. Brook emphasizes that: "There were no secrets, no mysteries, about wine. My questions, whether about viticulture or winemaking techniques, were readily answered." In a favorable review of the book published in "Decanter" recently, Gerald Asher emphasizes that "this willingness to share information has made it possible for Brook to track changes that amount to a U-turn in all things vinous in the state. When talking to growers elsewhere, I am often amazed to hear them make references to a California that no longer exists - they cannot imagine a place where change can be so rapid and so fundamental." Brook is quite skeptical about the AVA system, but his summaries are clear and historically accurate. Similarly with his descriptions of the various types of wine; I found his section devoted to Zinfandel particularly enlightening. But the heart of the book is a series of short essays on hundreds of different wineries; there are no tasting notes to speak of, but he captures the styles of wines made by many of these wineries in quite a remarkable way. For example, I have just finished reading Robert Mondavi's autobiography, Harvests of Joy: How the Good Life Became Great Business, admittedly a book that could have benefited from tighter editing. Brook's four pages captured the essence of Mondavi's story with style and warmth. It would be fun to quote dozens of these essays; here's part of one favorite just to give you the flavor of the whole: "Newton's vineyards are not open to the public, which is a great shame since